Smuggling gangs are charging migrants more than £3,300 for a place on an unsafe boat to the UK.
It means the criminal gang that orchestrated yesterday’s doomed crossing will have been in line to earn more than £112,000, while others can rake in as much as £150,000 as they pack more migrants in.
Jean-Marc Puissesseau, head of the ports of Calais and Boulogne, said last night: ‘The people who are paid by the migrants to get to your country – with such bad weather, with such rough sea – they are murderers.’
After speaking to one of the rescuers who brought some of the bodies back to land, he told the BBC: ‘The poor migrants have spent months and months to come here and die so close to their dream.’
Smuggling gangs are charging migrants more than £3,300 for a place on an unsafe boat to the UK
British security officials have confirmed that migrants are now being forced to board boats under threat from smugglers before crossing the Channel.
They said they believe the record number of asylum seekers landing this year is driven by the traffickers’ increasingly ruthless tactics.
Officials claimed that life jackets are often not provided to travelers, especially women and children. Instead, they let them use swimming pool rings or bicycle tubes as flotation devices.
Artin Iran Nejad, 15 months old, died after his boat with Kurdish-Iranian relatives sank.
Artin Iran-Nejad, a 15-month old boy was tragically found dead off the Norwegian coast earlier in the year.
All his siblings, Anita (9 years) and Armin (6 years old, died at the hands of their father Rasoul Mohammad Panahi.
Many migrants think they paid for entry to the UK by being stowed in a truck. This is considered safer than boarding a boat.
The earliest small-boat phenomenon was a result of smuggling groups launching boats only during times when there were calm seas and flat weather.
Many have reportedly launched in dangerous situations due to the increased presence of border security and police officers.